I wish they'd said more about New Zealand than "Cities in Europe, New Zealand, and Australia continue to rank highly."

I'm particularly curious to know how my native Wellington fared, or if it was even included at all. Odds are, only Auckland was considered, the most un-Kiwi part of the country.

__________________"Mediocrity is never so dangerous as when it is dressed up as sincerity." - Søren Kierkegaard

Ian McCulloch the U2 fan:
"Who buys U2 records anyway? It's just music for plumbers and bricklayers. Bono, what a slob. You'd think with all that climbing about he does, he'd look real fit and that. But he's real fat, y'know. Reminds me of a soddin' mountain goat."
"And as for Bono, he needs a colostomy bag for his mouth."

Originally posted by Axver I wish they'd said more about New Zealand than "Cities in Europe, New Zealand, and Australia continue to rank highly."

I'm particularly curious to know how my native Wellington fared, or if it was even included at all. Odds are, only Auckland was considered, the most un-Kiwi part of the country.

You can download the full pdf lists, but to save you time...

On the Top 50 Quality of Living:

Auckland & Sydney tied at 8th (both have dropped from tied at 5th last year)
Melbourne & Wellington tied at 14th (Wellington up one spot from last year, Melbourne down 2 spots)
Perth at 20, Adelaide at 25. Brisbane at 31.

The first US city is San Fran, tied at 25 along with Adelaide. The rest are all Euro/Canadian with only one other US city (Boston) and two Japanese cities featuring at the bottom of the list.

I'm surprised to see Auckland and Sydney doing the best from NZ and Australia. I definitely would have expected Wellington to top Auckland. Shame it seems like Christchurch didn't get included (I can't see it doing so much worse than Auckland and Wellington that it wouldn't make the rankings if assessed).

I cannot believe Brisbane made it. I believe you were the one who first called it "Australia's cultural black hole" on this forum and you're absolutely right.

__________________"Mediocrity is never so dangerous as when it is dressed up as sincerity." - Søren Kierkegaard

Ian McCulloch the U2 fan:
"Who buys U2 records anyway? It's just music for plumbers and bricklayers. Bono, what a slob. You'd think with all that climbing about he does, he'd look real fit and that. But he's real fat, y'know. Reminds me of a soddin' mountain goat."
"And as for Bono, he needs a colostomy bag for his mouth."

On a somewhat related note, there was also a survey released today by Economist Intelligence ranking cities by cost of living. There were several ties, which apparently confused reporters, so I've yet to see two lists that agree exactly, but anyhow the top 20 were all either European or South/east Asian. In more or less this order the top 15, including ties, were:

Brisbane is a cultural black hole, but you rarely meet people from Brisbane who care about that or even notice. In many ways it is a good 10 years behind Sydney & Melbourne, but if they don't know that, and don't care, they are living happy in Brisbane, no? The old argument: Someone from Brisbane says they could never live in Sydney because of the traffic. The Sydney person says that there is no traffic in Bribane because there is nowhere to go, nothing to do, and that's why they could never live there. Both are happy with where they live.

Originally posted by Earnie Shavers Brisbane is a cultural black hole, but you rarely meet people from Brisbane who care about that or even notice. In many ways it is a good 10 years behind Sydney & Melbourne, but if they don't know that, and don't care, they are living happy in Brisbane, no? The old argument: Someone from Brisbane says they could never live in Sydney because of the traffic. The Sydney person says that there is no traffic in Bribane because there is nowhere to go, nothing to do, and that's why they could never live there. Both are happy with where they live.

I'm moving to Brisbane on Friday, and I'm certainly not happy about it (but I'm planning to move to Melbourne in 2007). Most people here can't comprehend what I don't like about Brisbane, the Gold Coast, and southeast Queensland in general. On the other hand, I have a hard time figuring out what there is to like.

And on the traffic front, that's bollocks. The road network here (both Brisbane and the Gold Coast) is utter shite. Whoever designed this should have fireworks shoved up their rear end. There shouldn't be traffic jams but there are because someone was using the "How NOT to design road networks" textbook and overlooked the 'NOT' in the title.

__________________"Mediocrity is never so dangerous as when it is dressed up as sincerity." - Søren Kierkegaard

Ian McCulloch the U2 fan:
"Who buys U2 records anyway? It's just music for plumbers and bricklayers. Bono, what a slob. You'd think with all that climbing about he does, he'd look real fit and that. But he's real fat, y'know. Reminds me of a soddin' mountain goat."
"And as for Bono, he needs a colostomy bag for his mouth."

Oh please. I've been in 'heavy traffic' in Brisbane and the G.Coast.... it's nothing. I was on the Gold Coast a few weeks ago and had a cab driver going nuts about the traffic. It was laughable. I strongly defend the fact that Sydney's road design is without any thought whatsoever. None. Zero. It is only designed to relieve pressure on whatever government okays it at the time.

Oh please. I've been in 'heavy traffic' in Brisbane and the G.Coast.... it's nothing. I was on the Gold Coast a few weeks ago and had a cab driver going nuts about the traffic. It was laughable. I strongly defend the fact that Sydney's road design is without any thought whatsoever. None. Zero. It is only designed to relieve pressure on whatever government okays it at the time.

Well, my point is that 'heavy traffic' by Gold Coast/Brisbane definition shouldn't even exist in the first place. As the saying you posted says, "there is nowhere to go, nothing to do", and if anyone had used a brain to design the bloody road/rail network, it would work efficiently and there'd rarely be much of a hint of heavy traffic.

Instead, they think it's smart to send all through traffic straight into the very centre of Brisbane instead of around it, and the Gold Coast? I can't think of anywhere designed worse, in all aspects. It's just chaotic strip development with no sense of direction or purpose.

__________________"Mediocrity is never so dangerous as when it is dressed up as sincerity." - Søren Kierkegaard

Ian McCulloch the U2 fan:
"Who buys U2 records anyway? It's just music for plumbers and bricklayers. Bono, what a slob. You'd think with all that climbing about he does, he'd look real fit and that. But he's real fat, y'know. Reminds me of a soddin' mountain goat."
"And as for Bono, he needs a colostomy bag for his mouth."

On the traffic front, I find it funny Sydney and Auckland ranked highest yet both have appauling Road Systems.

Sydney is bareable at say 3am in the morning... just. But it does have a reasonably efficient rail system which does help.

Auckland on the other hand is the second largest city in the world in terms of land size yet has absolutely no public transport system of note to speak of. When I was last there it was utter gridlock from 7am-12pm and then again from 3pm-7pm. I love the place to bits but I am surprised it ranked so high.